Outfielder Lenny Green played 12 seasons in MLB (1957-68), his final two in Detroit. A native of Detroit, he attended Pershing high school. He died Jan. 6, 2019 at 86 years old. Dick Tripp, Detroit Free Press

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Former Detroit Lions coach Rick Forzano died Wednesday at the age of 90, the team announced.

Forzano was the head coach for parts of three seasons for the Lions from 1974-76 and was responsible for giving New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick his second job in the NFL.

Forzano went 15-17 as Lions coach, before he was replaced four games into the 1976 season by Tommy Hudspeth.

"Rick was a wonderful man and we are truly saddened by the news of his passing," Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford said in a statement released by the team. "On behalf of me, my family and the Lions organization, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the entire Forzano family. Our thoughts are with his wife Betty, daughters Stacey and Kristie and his son, Rick Jr.”

Detroit Lions coach Rick Forzano, right, talks with quarterback Greg Landry and an assistant during a game on Sept. 26, 1976.(Photo: Jimmy Tafoya)

Forzano began his coaching career at the high school and college level in the 1950s, where he worked alongside Belichick's father, Steve, as an assistant at Navy in 1959 and head coach of the academy in 1969-72.

Forzano joined the Lions as an assistant under Don McCafferty in 1973 and took over as head coach a year later after McCafferty died of a heart attack just before the start of the season.

Forzano said in a 2013 interview that he left the Lions over a dispute with the front office and still remembers his time with the team as some of the best years of his life.

Rick Forzano went 15-17 as coach of the Detroit Lions before he was replaced four games into the 1976 season by Tommy Hudspeth.(Photo: Detroit Free Press)

"I just felt that under the circumstances it wasn’t right for me to continue and (owner William Clay Ford) and I came to an agreement and you can say he fired me because he had to take a stand for one group or the other, and I understood that. But that’s how that ended," Forzano said. "But we never, we never had any animosity over that deal one bit. And it broke my heart. I’m going to tell you, to coach the Detroit Lions, that was always my goal from the time I started as a high school coach to be a head coach in pro ball, and to do that it broke my heart. You’re embarrassed, you’re dejected, you’re depressed, you’re all those things, cause I loved it. And I still love it, I still miss it. I’m like an alcoholic. I just, it’s a great sport and great people."

Forzano, the last Lions head coach whose team played at Tiger Stadium and the first at the Pontiac Silverdome, is survived by his wife, Betty, daughters Stacey and Kristie, and his son, Rick Jr.